Beta Sight: Front Porch Digital DIVArchive and DIVAnet

In early 2008, EchoStar built and implemented a full-mirrored playout system—centered on Front Porch Digital DIVArchive and DIVAnet—at its Gilbert, Ariz., facility that is designed to augment the company''s regular playout service in Cheyenne, Wyo., creating opportunities for the future growth of its direct broadcast satellite services.

EchoStar and its subsidiaries deliver direct broadcast satellite (DBS) television content and services to more than 13 million subscribers nationwide. Like many multichannel broadcasters, EchoStar operates several facilities and faces a variety of challenges, including transferring video content between sites. In early 2008, we successfully completed a major project that enhances our operational capabilities: We built and implemented a full-mirrored playout system at our Gilbert, Ariz., facility designed to augment our regular playout service in Cheyenne, Wyo., creating opportunities for the future growth of our DBS services. The project centers on two systems: Front Porch Digital's DIVArchive and DIVAnet. DIVArchive is designed for high-volume content storage and management. DIVAnet manages video-content transfer over a wide-area network (WAN) — in our case, more than 1,000 miles.

Given the structure and size of EchoStar's operation, it is absolutely necessary to move voluminous content seamlessly between our two sites. The implementation of our mirrored playout system connects independent DIVArchive systems at each site, creating a vast content-sharing network. DIVAnet takes ingested (received) content and stores it on our Omneon MediaGrid active storage system in Gilbert, which automatically replicates it across our private DIVArchive and Cheyenne server.

Today, our DIVArchive media server contains an average of 1,500 hours of content at any given moment. DIVArchive controls all stored and restore commands, whether initiated manually or via the Harris automation system. Most of the content stored on the network is pay-per-view movies, which usually have a limited lifespan based on agreements we have with various studios. Stored movies stay on the system for approximately six months, while other content can remain for more than three years.

Content is ingested at either the Cheyenne or Gilbert facility. Once the content is fully QC'd and accepted for broadcast, the Harris automation system begins to archive the content. DIVArchive connects new content, and DIVAnet mirrors this content to the system's sister server located in the remote facility.

However, moving content across a WAN is more complicated than doing so locally. DIVAnet adjusts potential glitches in background and in advance, or it manages the content transfer so I do not have to worry about it. If a network problem inhibits a content transfer, DIVAnet directs that content to hold in buffer for a later transfer. While we do have a high-bandwidth connection, sometimes the latency inherent in the FTP process causes excessive transfer times or transfers that fail altogether. DIVAnet allows us to plug in different transfer protocols between the servers that are mirroring each other and speeds up the transfer time dramatically: What once travelled at 2MBps now travels at approximately 80MBps. Without DIVAnet, we would have to run these transfers manually — exhausting time and staff.

DIVAnet allows my team to handle more volume and accomplish more meaningful work that focuses on broadcast quality — a core aspect of our business. These new systems also provide us with added security. If we have a problem in Cheyenne, I know I have content safely stored and secured in Gilbert, ensuring seamless broadcasts for our customers.

Besides the standard MPEG wrapper and essence files, DIVAnet enables us to move metadata associated with each clip so that the material manager at each site is using the same data and schedules input for identification and manipulation.

The DIVArchive and DIVAnet systems make managing content dramatically easier for me and for my team. In the past, we made multiple ingests to our playout system and coordinate ingest times with available hard-drive space. Now, considering the high volume of material we maintain, we only ingest once and playout or manipulate infinitely — saving us time, money, and stress. The equipment enables reliable, speedy access to content and easy transfer among multiple servers — regardless of where they are located — which increases efficiencies.

Before we implemented a mirrored playout system, we had local redundancy in Cheyenne. While it served as a decent backup system, it was not adequate for disaster recovery. With vast international demands, it is critical that we continue to function during widespread emergencies and meteorological events. EchoStar did not build its two facilities with technological efficiencies in mind. Our two-location strategy evolved as a result of business decisions outside of the engineering realm. Over time, we have realized benefits such as improved disaster-recovery potential that come from having facilities located in different climates.

As our business evolved, we learned that our previous backup system wasn't built with expansion in mind. In the future, we may choose to implement file delivery at both sites so content vendors have access to distribute encoded files to either facility. Our new systems make this possible.

Throughout EchoStar's 28-year history, we have demonstrated an entrepreneurial zeal by achieving significant industry firsts. Our deployment of DIVArchive and DIVAnet, systems designed to manage content in our unique system spanning 1,000 miles, demonstrates our continued forward-looking spirit. During my 12 years at EchoStar's Cheyenne facility, there has never been a dull moment — and for an adrenaline junkie, this is a great thing.

Based in Cheyenne, Wyo., Hugh Selway is part of the engineering team at EchoStar. He has been in the broadcast industry for 13 years.